SUMMARY:  The first guy we talked to up on Bannock Pass when we were trying to hitch to Leadore yesterday greeted us with, “Hey, hikers! Welcome to Idaho!” And that’s what it was like for the whole brief time in Leadore—everybody treated us like family. Even the Leadore Inn is basically a mini-motel in the backyard of a house.  Right now, it’s full of CDT thru-hikers.

If you want to, you can go sit on the Inn porch with the locals. Probably at least some of them will openly be “packin’ heat” (carrying a gun). They have not much interest in the news or fashions or any of that. They have their own world here and it’s not fancy, but it’s secure. We got a ride back to the trail from the Inn owner, and found a well graded, well marked CDT! WOW!

SUMMARY:  Last night it was so late by the time we got to our room at the Leadore Inn and we were so tired, that we just went straight to bed without even taking a shower.  Well, we remedied that, first thing this morning.  Man, does it feel good to be clean again!  Then we strolled over to the Stage Stop, hoping to get some breakfast.  They were supposed to be open at 8:30 am, but that time came and went, without any sign of anybody coming to open it up.  So since we were very hungry, we went back across the street to the restaurant, where once again, there was only one lady working, as both waitress and cook.  But since there weren’t very many people, it was OK.

While we were there, we had fun talking to Brazil Nut.  She is from Brazil (hence the name), and she is so strong and so full of energy and very upbeat!  This is her second time through the CDT, this time SOBO.  She’s working on getting a “Double Triple Crown”, where you do all 3 long trails both northbound and southbound.  Wow, she can eat–she ordered and ate TWO entire breakfasts.  But since she does a lot of miles every day, I’m sure she burns off those calories really fast.  She told us that the CDT trail is much improved over the year when she did it before.  “I usually don’t give money to things,” she said.  “But after I did the CDT last time, I gave them money to help fix the trail and put up more signs.  So every time I see nice trail and a new sign, I say ‘That’s my penny!'”

After that we had a race against the clock, trying to get everything done before our checkout time of 11:00 am.  I needed to do our laundry and go to the store to finish up the resupply stuff and then load our food bags.  I didn’t quite make it before 11:00, but the Inn owner was very kind and said, “No worries–I will do your room last.”  Actually, everybody here in Leadville is supernice.  The Inn is actually a house with a sort of mini-motel out back.  If I weren’t in a hurry, I could have joined the locals sitting on the house porch.  They are a colorful bunch.  Among them was one of the guys who were out scouting for their “wood permit” yesterday.  From what I can see, the people here don’t just sit in their house and watch TV…they go over and talk to their neighbors.  Everyone is very laid back and very friendly, and very conservative.  (Funny how so-called “liberal” people are so uptight all the time and so-called “conservative” people are so easy-going)   The owner even said, “I can give you a ride back to the trail at 2:00.”  We told him we’d try to hitch back before then, but if we had no luck, we’d take his offer.

I finished all the chores and we went over to the Stage Stop for lunch, then went to the road and tried to hitch back up to the CDT.  No luck.  None of the cars/trucks coming by were planning to go all the way up there.  So in the end, we did take the 2:00 ride.  The motel owner was planning to meet a CDT hiker who was coming in.

Once we were back on the northbound CDT, we were amazed at how nice the trail was.  It had obviously been worked on recently.  There were switchbacks and contouring, and plenty of marker posts and signs.  Nice!   As we walked by the new signs, I said, “Look!  There’s one of Brazil Nut’s pennies!”  The air is still very smoky.  Down in Leadore, I had asked the locals, “Where’s the fire?” and they just rolled their eyes and said, “There’s a lot of fires.  Not just one.  They’re everywhere.”

The CDT route was still up on the Divide, mostly in forest, with some meadows, too.  There were fences, built “Lincoln Log style.”  Finally we were out in the sagebrush again and admiring the views of deep, dramatic canyons when rain arrived, that lasted for about 45 minutes.  Actually, the rain was a good thing–it got rid of the smoke for a little while.

Tonight we are camped up high, in some trees.  We are both pretty tired–once again, we had less than 24 hours in town.